>hey listers, what's the deal with the HIPC (hiccup?)
Hip-ick. Not to be confused with Clinton's early and short-lived proposal for "health insurance purchasing cooperatives," also HIPCs, which the focus groups said sounded too much like hiccups.
> thing, is the threat
>of reneging on debt so great, greater than the threat that wiping debt can
>serve as a bad example to all those lazy do-nothing, want-a-handout types?
>can i party now, or should i wait to read the fine print?
I'm never one to tell people not to party, but this isn't any cause for celebration. Countries will have to go through further structural adjustment to qualify for "debt relief," and it won't make that much difference in their actual debt service payments. I think the HIPC initiative is mainly PR - a response to some very effective agitation by the Jubilee 2000 people.
Doug